It is well known to provide relatively sophisticated telephone call control and information features using a subscriber's telephone. Some examples of telephone call control features are dialling of stored numbers, redialling of previously dialled numbers, three-way calling, and call forwarding. Examples of telephone information features are calling number display, calling number logs, and call waiting messages. Numerous other examples of call control and information features exist.
Providing such features using the subscriber's telephone involves several disadvantages. For example, the telephone must be capable of providing the required control input and information display functions, so that it becomes a relatively complicated and expensive device. As further call control and information features are developed and become available, the telephone may be unable to accommodate them so that it must be replaced or upgraded to permit use of these further features. Even when the necessary functions are present in the telephone, use of the various functions is not generally simple or intuitive, typically requiring the subscriber to enter various number sequences and/or to interpret relatively cryptic displayed messages. Furthermore, these functions are limited to each individual telephone device, and they must be provided separately for different telephone devices.
Some of these disadvantages have been avoided or reduced by the use of computer-telephone integration (CTI) software which is run on a subscriber's computer in association with telephone control hardware such as a modem or telephone dialler. Such software can facilitate the display of information to, and the input of control information by, the subscriber, and in addition to the features discussed above can facilitate the provision of other features such as telephone directories and voice massaging. However, these CTI arrangements also have several disadvantages. In particular, they require the use of a computer, software, and telephone control hardware by the subscriber, and the computer system must be running continuously to collect information on incoming calls. In addition, such arrangements only provide information at the location at which the system is installed.
More sophisticated arrangements are also known for use with private branch exchange (PBX) and key system telephone networks deployed over a local area network (LAN), with similar disadvantages.
It is also known to provide so-called web call center applications. In this case a subscriber uses a web browser, which for example may be constituted by software running on the subscriber's computer system, to access a computer network such as the international computer network generally referred to as the Internet or World Wide Web, which for brevity is referred to below simply as the web. On browsing a company's web site and desiring to talk with a customer representative of the company, the subscriber can enter his name and telephone number into an HTML (hypertext markup language) page and click on a "submit" button, in response to which the company's telephone system initiates a telephone call from an available representative back to the subscriber. Such call center applications do not provide the telephone call control and information features discussed above.
An object of this invention is to provide improved methods of and apparatus for providing telephone call control and information.